RED STA,R VOLUME 4 E a r l y S o v i e t .," d e t F i g h t e r s The 19405 and Early 19505 Yefim Gordon Original translation by Dmitriy and Sergey Komissarov Midland Publishing - EarlySovietJetFighters Contents ©2002YefimGordon ISBN1857801393 ©2002MidlandPublishing Designconceptandlayout Introduction 3 PublishedbyMidland Publishing byPolygonPressLtd.(Moscow,Russia) _ 4WatlingDrive,Hinckley,LE103EY,England Colourartwork©ValentinVetlitskiy 1. TheFirstMikoyanJet 7 --I:01455254490 Fax:01455254495 E-mail:[email protected] Thisbookisillustratedwithphotosfromthe 2. TheJet'Tadpoles'of archivesofYefimGordon,HelmutWalther, AleksandrYakovlev 47 MidlandPublishingisanimprintof RSKMiG,theSukhoiOKB,theYakovlevOKB 3. Yak-19andYak·25- Yakovlev's IanAllanPublishingLtd andtheRussianAviationResearchTrust LastStraight-wingFighters 89 4. Lavochkin'sFirstJets 101 Worldwidedistribution(exceptNorthAmerica): PrintedinEnglandby MidlandCountiesPublications IanAllanPrintingLtd 5. Sukhoi'sEarlyTwinjets 115 4WatlingDrive,Hinckley,LE103EY,England RiverdeneBusinessPark,MoleseyRoad, 6. Alekseyev'sEndeavour,.,......... 121 Telephone:01455254450 Fax:01455233737 Hersham,Surrey,KT124RG Colourdrawings , '... ,133 E-mail:[email protected] www.midlandcountiessuperstore.com Allrightsreserved. Nopartofthis publicationmaybereproduced, NorthAmericantradedistribution: storedinaretrievalsystem,transmitted SpecialtyPressPublishers&WholesalersInc. inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic, 11605KostDamRoad,NorthBranch,MN55056 mechanicalorphoto-copied, recorded Tel:651 5833239 Fax:651 5832023 orotherwise,withoutthewritten Tollfreetelephone:8008954585 permissionofthepublishers. Titlepage:TheYak-25of1947wasthelaststraight-wingjetaircraftdevelopedbytheYakovlevdesignbureau.Itneverenteredproduction,beingoutperformed bythesweptwingMiG·15. Below:The1-302(FP) representedoneofthemanyattemptstoimprovetheMikoyanOKS'sfirstjet,theMiG-9.Theoffsetpositionofthe37·mmcannonwasan attempttocuretheengines'tendencytoflameoutwhenthecannonswerefired. 2 Introduction f BytheendoftheSecondWorld WartheUSA and GreatBritain had developed practicaljet fighters,eveniftheycameabittoolatetotake part in the action. Germany achieved even greater success, using jet fighters opera tionally in the closing stages ofthe war. The Soviet Union had fallen behind in this area, whichisduetotheSovietgovernment'sscant attention to jet aircraft development and the lackofindigenousjetengines.True, asearly as 1939the design bureau led by NikolayN. Polikarpov (OKB-51) had begun working on mixed-power fighters; the lead was quickly followed byotherdesign bureauxheaded by AleksandrS.Yakovlev(OKB-115),SemyonA. Lavochkin (OKB-301), Artyom I. Mikoyan Above:TheLavochkinLa-7Requippedwithaliquid-fuelrocketboosterintheaftfuselagewasoneofthe (OKB-155), Pavel O. Sukhoi (OKB-134) and precursorsofthejetera. Semyon M. Alekseyev (OKB-21). (OKB = opytno-konstrooktorskoye byuro - experi mental design bureau; the number is acode allocatedforsecurityreasons.)Thesefighters employedramjetsorliquid-fuelrocketmotors to give them a performance boost as J required, but for various reasons none of them achieved productionandservice. Several rocket-powered fighters were brought out as well, including the BI devel oped by A. Ya. Bereznyak and A. M. Isayev, the'302' designed byA. G. Kostikovand the Mikoyan 1-270 (aka izdeliye Zh). (Izdeliye (product) suchandsuchwasacommonway ofcodingSovietmilitaryhardware).However, thedangersassoCiatedwiththerocketmotor TheLa-9Rwasanothertestedandfailedapproachtotheproblem,featuringunderwingramjetboosters. running on corrosive and/or toxic fuels and oxidisers, coupled with the motor's limited andfeaturing amUlti-stageaxialcompressor. Jet aircraft and jet engine development operation time, meant this was not a viable ByAugust 1941 the RD-1 prototypewas75% became a prioritytask for the Soviet aircraft powerplantforahigh-speed aircraft. completeandSKB-1 wasworkingonaneven industry after the war. Huge resources were Earlyresearch anddevelopmentworkon more powerful engine, the 600-kgp (1,322-lb committed to this task; still, all the money in turbojet engines in the USSR dates back to st) M-18; unfortunately, the outbreak of the theworldcan'tbuyyoutime,andtheresearch thelate1930s. In1938ArkhipM. Lyul'kaand warcausedallworktobeputon hold. anddevelopmenteffortwascertainlygoingto a group of engineers who shared his ideas In early 1942 the Council of People's be a lengthy one, which meant the service cameupwiththeprojectofthe RTD-1 turbo Commissars, oneoftheSoviet Union'shigh entryofthefirstSovietjetswouldoccurrather jetratedat400kgp (881 Ibst).Approvingthe est government bodies, considered several laterthandesired.Therefore,tospeed upthe project,thePeople'sCommissariatofAircraft jetfighter projects, including MikhailI. Good work the Soviet government chose to make Industry(NKAP- Narodnyykomissariahtavi kov'sproposaltore-enginetheLaGG-3fight useofGermany'sexperienceinthisfield. atsionnoy promyshlennosti) allocated funds er with an RD-1 turbojet. Concurrentlythejet In 1945the Soviet Union came into pos formanufacturingaprototypeengine; mean enginedevelopmentprogrammewasdusted sessionofmanymaterialspertainingtojetair while, Luyl'kawastransferredtoLeningradto offinaccordancewithlosifV. Stalin'sperson craft development. The rich war booty continue his work on jet engines at SKB-1 al orders. In reality, however, the work really included complete aircraft and jet engines. (Special Design Bureau - spetsiahl'noye gotunderwayin1944whenLyul'kawasputin Many of these aircraft underwent rigorous konstrooktorskoye byuro). The RTD-1 chargeofthegasturbineengineR&Dsection testing at the Red Banner State Research evolved into the RD-1 (reaktivnyy dVigatel' atanewly-establishedinstitutespecialisingin InstituteoftheSovietAirForce (GKNilWS jet engine) delivering 500 kgp (1,102 Ib st) propulsion research. Gosoodarstvennyy krasnoznamyonnyy na- 3 becausetheyhadreachedproductionstatus; therefore, it was decided to urgently launch productionoftheseenginesintheUSSR. On28thApril 1945thePeople'sCommis sarofAircraftIndustryissued an ordertothe effect that Chief Designer Vladimir Yakovle vich Klimov, whose engine design bureau had beenevacuatedfrom Rybinsk(Yaroslavl' Region)toUfaduringthewar,shouldprepare a set of detail drawings of the Jumo 004B, whereupon the reverse-engineered turbojet was to enter production at the Ufa aero enginefactory No. 26asthe RD-10. Klimov's closestaide NikolayD. Kuznetsovwasputin charge of the actual copying job. Another NKAPorderissuedon 13thJune1945tasked ChiefDesigneroftheKazan' aero-enginefac toryNo.16Kolosovwithsimilarlycopyingthe BMW003Aand launching production ofthis engineastheRD-20.Thedecisiontobuildthe Aboveandbelow:twoviewsoftheLavochkin'126'fighteraftertheadditionoframjetboosters. RD-10and RD-20wasconfirmedbytheState Defence Committee's directive of 20th July 1945 titled 'On studying and mastering pro duction of German jet aircraft designs'. Pro ductionofbothmodelsgotunderwayin1946. Still, despitethe high priority attached in the immediate post-war months to copying and producing the German engines, it was clearthatprogressinthefieldofSovietengine design could only be attained by relying on own resources and indigenousmodels. Back in the autumn of 1944 Lyul'ka's designteam had begun testing the S-18tur bojet, a further development of the pre-war RD-1;theSstoodforstendovyy,meaningthat theSovietUnion'sfirstoperationaljetengine wasintendedforbenchtrialsandwasnotyet flight-cleared.Atthisstagethe designershad their first acquaintance with engine surge at highrpm;thesurgewasbadenoughtowreck ooch-no-issledovatel'skiy institoot Voyenno thesetestsand examinationswerecirculated the engine completely. Still, changes intro vozdooshnykh sil) and the Flight Research to various organizations within the NKAP ducedintothedesigncuredtheproblemand Institute (L11 - Lyotno-issledovatel'skiy insti framework, including design bureaux. The theS-18successfullycompleteditstrials.The toot); they were also carefully studied atthe same procedure applied to the captured latter included comparative tests with the Central Aero- & Hydrodynamics Institute engines. The Junkers Jumo 004B and BMW Jumo 004B, showing that the Soviet engine namedafterNikolayYeo Zhukovskiy (TsAGI 003Aturbojets rated at 900 kgp (1,984 Ib st) hadnotonlyhigherthrust(1,250kgp/2,755Ib Tsentrahl'nyy aero- i ghidrodinamicheskiy and800kgp (1,7631bst) respectivelywereof st) but a lower dry weight and specific fuel institoot). The detailed reports filed after special interest to the Soviet engineers consumption. Theseencouraging results led tothedecisiontodevelopaflight-clearedver sion designatedTR-1 (toorboreaktivnyy[dvi gate!'] - turbojet engine) and manufacture a small trials batch. To this end a new design bureau, OKB-165, was established, with ArkhipM. Lyul'kaasChiefDesigner. On2ndApril19461.V.Stalin,Chairmanof the Council of People's Commissars, held a briefing on the prospects of Soviet aviation, includingjetaircraftdevelopment. Oneofthe items on the agenda was the possibility of copyingthe MesserschmittMe262A-1afight er, an exampleofwhich had been evaluated byGKNilWSinAugust-November1945,and putting itinto production atoneofthe Soviet The'120R',another'rocketrider'derivativeoftheLa-?,seenduringmanufacturer'sflighttests. aircraftfactories. Initsdaythe Me262hadan 4 impressivetop speed of850 km/h (459 kts), heavy armament comprising four 30-mm (1.18calibre)cannonsandwasgenerallywell designed. However,theideawasrejectedfor variousreasons. By then several Soviet design bureaux had anumberofhigh-speed aircraft projects inthe making; manyofthem fell forthe 'Ger man' layout with two turbojet engines under a oronthe wings la Me262 (which, inciden tally,wasalsoemployedbytheBritishGloster Meteor).Forinstance,PavelO.Sukhoi'sOKB used itforthe izdeliye Kfighter, the Mikoyan OKB developed a Me 262 look-alike desig nated 1-260, while the Lavochkin OKB came up with the '160' fighter (the first fighter to Ab~ve:ThisYak-7BwasconvertedintilaresearchaircraftwithtwoMerkoolovDM-4Sramjetboosters. have this designation) and the Alekseyev OKB with the 1-21 designed along similar lines. A notable exception was the Yakovlev OKBbecauseA.S.Yakovlevcordiallydisliked heavy fighters, preferring lightweight single enginedmachines. (LaterYakovlevdidresort tothetwin-enginedlayout,butthatwasinthe early 1950swhen theYakovlev OKBbrought out the Yak-120 (Yak-25) twinjet interceptor which liesoutsidethescopeofthisbook.) As an insurance policy in case one OKB failedtoachievethedesiredresults,theSovi etgovernmentusuallyissuedageneraloper ationalrequirement(GOR)foranewaircraftto Above:TheYak-3RDexperimentalmixed-powerfighter.Therocketmotorinstallationinthetailisnot several design bureaux at once in a single obviousinthisview,asthenozzleisclosedbyapointedfairing. Council of People's Commissars (orCouncil of Ministers) directive. This was followed by an NKAP (or MAP, Ministerstvo aviatsionnoy t. promyshlennosti- Ministry ofAircraft Indus try)ordertothesameeffect.Thiswasalsothe case with the new jetfighters. Initially all the abovementioned OKBs designed their fight ersaroundSovietcopiesoftheJumo004Bor BMW003Aengines;laterthemorepromising indigenousTR-1 cameintothepicture. It should be noted that in the early post war years the Soviet defence industry enter prises continued to operate pretty much in wartime conditions, working like scalded cats. In particular, the Powers That Be imposed extremely tight development and Above:TheSukhoiSU-5fighterfeatureda'pseudo-turbojetengine'inthetailwithanengine-driven productionschedulesonthedesign bureaux compressor.Itnevergotpasttheprototypestage. and production factories tasked with devel oping ?nd manufacturing new military hard ware. Thescheduleswere closely monitored notonly bythe ministryto which the respec tive OKB orfactory belonged butalso bythe notoriousKGB.'Missingthetrain'couldmean swiftandseverereprisalnotonlyfortheOKB head and actual project leaders but also for high-rankingstatesmenwhohadresponsibil ity for the programme. Nevertheless, even though the commencement of large-scale R&D on jet aircraft had been ordered as far backasMay1944,nobreakhroughhadbeen achieved byearly1946.Forinstance,theair craftindustryfailedtocomplywiththeorders tobuild pre-production batchesofjetfighters Anothermixed-poweraircraftfromSukhoi,theSU-7Rwithaliquid-fuelrocketmotorinthetail. 5 in time forthe traditional Augustflypast held at Moscow's Tushino airfield; only two jets, the MiG-9 and Yak-15, participated inthefly past on that occasion. This was all the more aggravating becausejetfighters had been in production in GreatBritain since 1944and in the USA since early 1945. Unfortunately the Soviet aero-engine factories encountered major difficulties when mastering production ofjetengines; henceinearly1946jetengines wereproducedinextremelylimitednumbers, sufferingfromlowreliabilityandhavingatime between overhauls (TBO) of only 25 hours. As was customary in the Soviet Union in Above:Close-upoftheYak-3R'sGlooshkoRD-1-KhZrocketmotorwiththecowlingremoved. thosedays,someonehadtopayforthis, and scapegoatswere quicklyfound. In February March 1946 People's Commissar of Aircraft Industry A. I. Shakhoorin, Soviet Air Force C-in-C Air Marshal A. A. Novikov, the Air Force's ChiefEngineerA. K. Repin and Main Acquisitions Department chief N. P. Selez nyov and many others were removed from office, arrested and mostlyexecuted. The early post-war years presaged the ColdWarera,andtheSovietleadersattached considerable importance notonlyto promot ing the nation's scientific, technological and military achievements but also to flexing the Soviet Union's military musclesforthe world tosee.Thisexplainswhythegovernmentwas soeagertoseenewtypesdisplayedatTushi Above:TheBIrocket-poweredinterceptordesignedbyBereznyakandIsayev. no, regardlessofthefactthatsomeoftheair craft had not yet completed their trials - or, worse, did not meet the Air Force's require ments. Thus, the grand show at Tushino on 3rd August 1947featured awhole formation ofjetfighter prototypes: theYak-19, theYak 15U, the Yak-23, three Lavochkin designs the'150',the'156'andthe'160',plustheMiG 9,theSu-9andtheSu-11. Sometimes the initial production aircraft selected for the flypast lacked armament or importantequipmentitems.Thiswasnotcon sidered important; the world had to see the new aircraft at all costs. Behold the achieve ments of socialism! Feel the power of the Above:The'4302'rocket-poweredinterceptormakesaninterestingcomparisonwiththeBI.Likethelatter Sovietwarmachine!Fearye!Still,despitethis type,itremainedanexperimentalaircraft. air of ostentation, the achievements and the powerweretherebeyondalldoubt;theSovi et Union's progress in aircraft and aero enginetechnologies was indeed impressive, especially considering the ravages of the four-yearwar. Itjusthappenedthat, because ofurgentneed, somethingswhich could not bedeveloped in-countryquicklyenough had tobecopied;andcopiedtheywere- andwith reasonablyhighqualityatthat. Thus by the end ofthe 1940sthe Soviet Union had notonly caught up with the West as far as jet aviation was concerned but gainedaleadincertainareas.ThefirstSoviet jetfightersdealtwith inthisbookwereinstru mental in reachingthisgoal. TheMikoyan1-250mixed-powerfighteremployedthesamepowerplantastheSu-5. 6 -.....~------------_._------_._--- Chapter1 The first Mikoyan jet As already noted in the introduction, at the end of the Great Patriotic War the State Defence Committeegeared scientificorgani sations and experimental design bureauxto thesolutionoftasksassociatedwiththepost wartechnical progress in the field of military aviation; anumberofOKBsweretasked with developingjet-powered aircraft. In 1944-45the 1-250 mixed-powerfighter (manufacturer's designation izdeliye N) was builtandtested byOKB-155 underthe direc tion of Artyom Ivanovich Mikoyan and his closestassociateMikhaillosifovichGurevich. ItfeaturedaVRDK'pseudo-turbojetengine'in thetail,theaxialcompressorbeingdrivenvia an extension shaft by a Klimov VK-107R 12 cylinder liquid-cooled piston engine which alsodroveavariable-pitchpropeller.Thiswas followed bythe 1-270(izdeliye Zh) interceptor poweredbyatwin-chamberliquid-fuel rocket motor. The formerfighter was built in limited numbers, while the 1-270 was purely a research aircraft; however, bythe end ofthe OKB-155testpilotAlekseyN.Grinchik(secondfrom right)withmembersoftheMikoyanOKB'sflighttest war it became clear that the bet should be facilitystaffbesidetheill-fatedfirstprototype1-300(F-1).NotetheMikoyanOKBlogoonthenose. placedonturbojetengines. In February 1945theCouncil ofPeople's It should be noted that throughout the The idea of copying (or 'reproducing in Commissarsissued adirectiverequiring sev year of 1945 the Soviet government was basiclayout')theMe262wasconsiderednot eral design bureaux to develop, build and extremely concerned over the very slow only in the top echelon but also in virtually submit for testing single-seat jet fighters. In tempoofjetaircraftdevelopmentand service every'fighter'OKB.TheGermanfighter'slay particular, the OKB of Plant No. 155 was introduction. Hardlyamonth passed without out with the engines in underwing nacelles tasked with developing a single-seat fighter a new directive being issued by the State was not ignored by OKB-155 either. withtwo'BMW003typejetengines' (sic) and Defence Committee and the Government; Responding to the specific operational aweapons complement comprising one 57 ever more stringent time limits were set and requirement issued by the government, in mm (2.24 calibre) or 37-mm (1.45 calibre) tasks were redefined, butto noavail- try as May 1945the designers started work on the cannon and two 23-mm (.90 calibre) can they would, the Mikoyan OKB engineers 1-260twin-enginedfighter projectwhich bore nons.Thefactthatthespecificationcalled for could notgettheworkto gofaster. TheState anextraordinary resemblancetothe Me262. so potentarmamentwas dueto thefighter's Defence Committee's directive of 20th july The aircraftfeatured a battery of heavy can intended main role of combatting heavy 1945 titled 'On studying and mastering pro nons installed in the fuselage nose and was bombers. duction of German jet aircraft designs' powered byturbojetenginesmounted under Another directive in which specifications demanded that the aircraft industry (and, thewings. The projectwas completed bythe fortheaircraftwere laid down more precisely notably, aircraft design bureaux) unfailingly end ofthe year. However, the designers did followed on9thApril.According tothis docu fulfilthetasksassignedtothem. Onceagain, notdeem this layoutto bethe optimum one. ment the twin-engined fighter designed by morepreciselyformulatedtasksweregivento Wishing to reduce drag and achieve the OKB-155 was to have a maximum speed of the 'fighter makers' concerning the develop fullest possible use of the engines' thrust, 900 km/h (486.48 kts) at sea level and 910 mentofjetfighters intendedtousetwotypes they decided to place the powerplant in the km/h (491.89 kts) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft), of German engines that were being put in forwardfuselage,withtheenginesexhausting climbing to this altitude within four minutes; series production. (As noted in the introduc undertherearfuselage. InJune 1945,barely maximum range was specified as 820 km tory section, by mid-1945 Government deci amonthafterthecommencementofworkon (509 miles).Thefighterwasto bearmedwith sions had been taken and appropriate the 1-260, the OKB-155 initiated work on the one57-mm (or37-mm) cannon and apairof directives issued by NKAP requiring series alternative project of the 1-300 fighter which 23-mmcannons.Threeprototypesweretobe production of the Junkers Jumo 004B and also bore the in-house designation 'izdeliye completed, the first of which was to enter BMW003jetenginesto belaunched atSovi F'. It was envisaged that the first prototype flighttestby15thMarch 1946. etaero-enginefactories.) would becompleted bymid-October. 7 Above:Finalassemblyofthefirst1-300(F-1)attheMikoyanOKS'sexperimentalshop(MMZNo.155).Notethesolidmainwheeldiscs.Thenoseofanother1-300 isvisibleontheright. Thishead-onviewoftheF-1 ~howstoadvantagethenarrowtrackoftheundercarriage. 8 Above:AlekseyGrinchikclimbsintothecockpitoftheF-1.Theoriginalsolidmainwheelshavebeenreplacedwithspokedones.NotethattheMiGlogoiscarried ontheportsideonly. Asideviewofthefirstprototype.The1-300wasarathercorpulentfighter. 9